Charlie Wilson's War: The Book

Just finished the book which was written by George Crile in 2003 and is about to be released as a movie starring Tom Hanks.

Basically its the unbelievably fascinating story of Texas Democratic Congressman Charlie Wilson, CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos, and a couple hundred other characters story during the 1980s.

Wilson was a drunkard, womanizing, pro choice voting, gun right defending, scandal prone oddity from one of the most conservative districts in the US. Despite his mostly liberal credentials (except he never saw a gun he didnt like but never hunted)he and the CIA agent eventually teamed up to circumvent the entire US government to create the largest CIA covertly funded war in history. Their reason? Revenge for Vietnam.

Anyways, its a great read. For the most part, they did it because they hated the Soviets. Interestingly enough, they rarely dealt directly with the Afghans, alsmost always with Pakistani Intelligence, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, the Chinese, and even the Israelis.

There's a wealth of information in the book about how the Congress operated in those days, Afghanistan really only happened because of the fixation on the Contra Army in Nicaragua. While the press was going nuts about 20 million dollar operations in central america, Wilson spearheaded what would eventually become 1 billion a year in direct funding to kill actual Russians. The largest such action in history.

Some tidbits:

The Prince of Darkness himself, Richard Perle, who's plan was laughed out of Wilson's office. His plan? Set up loudspeakers outside Russian bases telling the Russians they could defect to the Afghans and make it the west. Gust Avrakotos, the CIA agent, brought in five huge blowups of Afghans torturing and killing russian soldiers in ways that make Abu Gharaib look like childs play. Perle wouldnt back down and eventually got Reagan to procure 20 million in funding for his plan. Eventually the CIA had to pay the Afghans 5 million per alive Russian just to get their hands on one, and both turned out to be criminally insane.

They both warned about Iran-Contra a full year before the deal was made, in the case of the CIA officer, he was banished to Africa for making such a fuss. Eventually his bosses who banished him for not following along ended up in jail for what he'd warned them of.

Oliver North was a moron.

They never met Osama Bin Laden, who operated independently. They did meet many unsavory characters who were later labeled as terrorists by the US.

Jimmy Carter's Mission statement on the Soviet Invasion of 1979 was one of the most vague papers ever released, and paved the way for all kinds of incredible rule breaking.

There was a time when an alcoholic, coke snorting, womanizing, pro-choice voting, hit & running, war hawkish, gun loving, communist hating, bigger than life Texas Democrat could not only get elected in the middle of the bible belt, he could get reelected for 20 years and become the head of defense appropriations in the House.

Highly recommended read.

Sounded interesting, but never made the effort. Thanks!

have to read it after seeing this post.

in arming the Afghan mujahedin was an amazing revelation. I'd had a belly full of Charlie Wilson by the time I finished it, but it was a very interesting and entertaining read.